Here it is, people. The next part of the Sith Dominion saga
It continues a year and a half later from Dark Age, so that would make it during year 23 ABY and forwards.

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A year had gone past. A campaign was unleashed against the Sith Dominion named "Shrouded Future". It was meant to be a swift ending to the threat of the Sith. Tibrin, Sullust and Eriadu were all lost, forcing the Dominion to move it's capital to Thule. The Bogan Amphitheater mysteriously vanished during the attack and was again found several months later one bright morning right in the middle of Hulom, Thule's capital. Most people believed it was Sith magic, taking Tepe had cleared the exact area only days before the Amphitheater appeared there. Anyways, the campaign was prolonged as more and more nearby planets saw the actions of the Galactic Alliance as bloodthirsty warmongering. They raised Dominion flags high and pledged any and all of their military to the Sith Dominion. The Galactic Alliance was desperate. The Jedi were pushing to get rid of the Sith threat and the military had no other possibility than follow in the quake of the Jedi. Ossus had been heavily targeted and four times the Dominion had had to defend it. Indeed, Ossus was one of the greatest trouble spots of the whole war. It was the one place where the Dominion had to keep a massive amount of forces and the Jedi of the Galactic Alliance were foolish enought to think that losing Ossus would be a great loss to the Dominion. So the jedi continued to send in fleets to be destroyed and soldiers to be slaughtered.

For half a year more the war extended, longer than the campaign was meant for, and the Galactic Alliance broke. The Dominion managed to take several important planets neighbouring Sith Space. they even managed to connect Naboo and Kamino to the main territory. They were indeed becoming a much larger area than Tepe had ever planned. However, the Galactic Alliance was still a much larger area and it fought back with whatever it had. They were nearly the same in strenght, but the Dominion still had the powerful Sith on their side and the people of the Dominion were happier than those of the Galactic Alliance. Dark Jedi were the ones searching for clues on the Sith Hunters and they were indeed almost everywhere, even on Galactic Alliance planets. The war had reached it's most terrible peak as the Galactic Alliance once again gathered itself and launched an attack against the Dominion.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Darth Tepe hopped on his speeder bike, rushing towards the Jedi generals who had landed with their forces on Bandomeer, trying to cut the Dominion mining operation there. The Sith Lord activated one of his lightsabers which he again was using , cutting Alliance troops on the way. The artillery tried to stop him as well as some of the walker, but he disposed of them easily. The Dominion troops marched behind him to the battlefield, opening fire in their rather new design of armor and improved blasters. The Sith was still on his way when the actual battle started and soldiers of both sides started to fall. When finally getting to the command post, the Sith stopped the bike while getting ready to jump off it, which he did. The soldiers around the command post opened fire but with the second lightsaber also activated, they had no chance against the skilled Sith Lord. Tepe was faced by three jedi. Two older ones and one merely a padawan.

"Welcome to Bandomeer. I'll be your guide for today, Lord Tepe"
"You won't win this war, Darth"
"You are quite wrong. I'm already winning"
The four clashed into battle with their red, green and blue lightsabers swinging in the air. The Sith seemed to be in trouble, but he calmly locked the two lightsabers together and swung into battle. A dust started to gather around them as they moved the earth beneath them with their feet. Every now and then a force attack was attempted and sometimes even succeeding in it. For twenty minutes they dueled before Tepe detatched from the fight and grinned with a lone sweat drop going down his cheek. The jedi were panting and got ready for another round.
"Let's start this fight then, gentlemen. I'm quite throught in toying with you" the Sith Lord said and a shock gleamed from the faces of the jedi. How cold someone a old as he still go on with the belief of winning. Tepe took one of his lightsabers and put it away, shocking the Jedi some more.

The four clashed again, the Sith holding his ground and forcing the Jedi on the attack. Using Makashi, he found easily penetratable places and struck down the first jedi, the padawan. The rest of the jedi went into a rage and Tepe too a defencive style into use.
"I am the master of far too many styles for you to understand" Tepe said before vanishing from their view. Suddenly, the red lightsaber was seen with a long tail following it. With the technique used by Emukiel Al-Saefar during the Hundred Year Darkness, the Sith swiftly struck down both Jedi before they could even blink. The Lord stood tall as the jedi fell and then looked at the battle. The Dominion was winning, which was no wonder. The strong force user deactivated his lightsaber, gathered the Jedi lightsabers and raised his hand towards the Galactic Alliance artillery. Explosions rang throughout the battlefield as the artillery was destroyed by the lone man with a dark cape flapping behind him. As Lord Tepe sat onto his bike again, he observed the fall of the Alliance troops. He contacted the Admiral waiting up in space. The space battle was still going on.

"Admiral, any news from my apprentices?"
"Yes, my lord. Lady Charna has won the defence of Naboo and Kaoin is still fighting on Lorrd aganst the Galactic Alliance garrison."
"What about the population? What do my people say?"
"The Lorrdians have turned against the Galactic Alliance, sire"
"Good. Prepare the ship for a trip to Lorrd. Send message to Lady Charna that I wish to meet her in the capital for a briefing as soon as possible"
"Yes, my lord. What about Kaoin?"
"I will tell him myself. Send a gunship to pick me up"
"Yes, my lord"

The gunship left the large ship with a small fighter escort. As they lowered to the battlefield, the battle was nearly over with the last Galactic Alliance forces being defeated. In space the battle still raged with the Dominion slightly winning. Tepe drove his speeder bike onto the gunship and told them to lift off. The ships left back to space and went inside the dungeon ship's many hangars. The overly big ship went straight throught the battle, shooting several Galactic Alliance ships into space dust on it's way. It tilted the battle majorly for the Dominion and then jumped into hyperspace for a short trip to Lorrd.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

"Hold on," said the pilot who immediately put the LAAT/i gunship into a sharp dive, opening up his forward blaster cannons and missiles on the fixed artillery. "Woo! We have a kill." said the pilot, punching the air.

The gunship came near the Forward Command Center and did a smuggler's turn and landed softly on the ground. Kaoin jumped off and the gunship took to the air, it's engines creating a dust cloud form where it took off. Kaoin walked into the FCC and walked to the holographic table. The battle was going on everywhere on Lorrd, the heaviest fighting taking place in Lorrd City, the capital.

"Captain, have we captured the spaceport yet?" Kaoin inquired of the officer. The holo-projection displayed the Dominion troops in blue, and the Republic in red. The spaceport had very little Republic troops left, but was not marked as one of the Dominions.

"No, sir," said the Captain, giving Kaoin a brief salute. "The 41st is having trouble dislodging the Republic MBTs, but two of our walkers are moving over there to give the 41st suppression fire." The Captain pressed a button and the blue image magnified on the spaceport.

"Good. Now, how are we doing on civilian casualties?" Kaoin inquired still staring at the holo.

"We are at around 6,000 casualties most of it collateral damage. But out of two million, this is way shorter than the projected one-hundred thousand." The captain replied, his face beaming.

Despite several attempts by the Galactic Alliance to reclaim Naboo, the planet remained relatively peaceful... and fully loyal to the Sith Dominion. In part, their loyalty was based on Charna's activities to keep the planet safe. In doing so, she called on a portion of her memory she had scarcely looked into after joining Tepe; the healing arts of the Jedi.

Danielle Bayers had been quite the learner before she'd become Charna. She'd spent a great deal of her time in the Archives and various other places where she could be guaranteed to learn something. One of the places she'd spent many hours was with the Healers. And Charna called on this memory to aid her quest for Dominion loyalty on Naboo.

Wherever there was war, there were sure to be injuries and deaths. However, Charna spent much of her time in the medical tents, not far from the front lines. She knew she was not a great fighter, but if she could return good fighters to the battlefield, she would do so as quickly as her power allowed her.

And now, Naboo was in peace once more. Charna spent most of her time meditating, feeling the thoughts and emotions of the Dominion troops and of the native Nabooans. They were all in good spirits; the planet was secure and supplies they needed were abundant.

Life was good.

Their morale dropped ever so slightly when they learned that Charna had been called away, but she encouraged them with a speech, a plea to fight the good fight while she was gone, and a promise of her return whenever it became possible. The entire planet watched as Charna's personal shuttle lifted off and flew up to her flagship.

"Inform Lord Tepe, we are on our way," she ordered the communications officer. He nodded and relayed the message as ordered. Satisfied, Charna told her admiral that she would be in her office if needed.

Danera was thrown against the wall of his ship. Battle droids were lying in pieces around the small hangar the mercenary had bought for himself right next to his appartment. The former jedi was forced to drop his lightsaber. With a clank, the last defence of the man was disposed of. Emukiel held Danera against the wall with the force. A low gurgle left the man's throat as Emukiel stepped forwards, his lightsaber pointing at the floor.
"Where is Strider Flamehart?" the Weequay asked calmly, releasing Danera slightly from his hold so he could speak.
"I don't know" Danera told him and spat out blood. His head jerked and hit the wall with a nasty crack.
"When, where and how did you last contact him?" Emukiel continued, staring at Danera.
"A year and a half ago. When my pirate fleet was destroyed. The Hunters went into hiding. They didn't tell me where, and I didn't want to know" Danera told the weequay and grimaced with pain.
"Hmh... Pathetic" Emukiel said and released the mercenary who fell uncontious almost immediately afterwards.
The Weequay walked to the door, deactivating his lightsaber and putting it away on the way there. As he climbed into his speeder, the pilot droid rushed to the man and dragged him to the ship where Danera was put into a bacta tank.

Emukiel left off for the landing pad where his transport was waiting to take him to the next destination. The ship was marked as a civilian transport, enabling him to come this far to Galactic alliance territory. This sudden change in his plans, with Danera not knowing where Flamehart was, was very disturbing to him. He would just have to wait for the Hunters to come out then. After Tepe had told Emukiel Strider knew his technique, he had started to gain interest in the man. He had gone over several libraries and archives for any information on the man. Finally when he had studied on him the best he could, he started to search for him to see if the technique truly was the same.

------

Tepe stepped onto the bridge. The Admiral stood into attention and greeted the Lord.
"Lord Tepe, we recieved word from Naboo"
"Yes?"
"Lady Charna is on her way"
"Good. Are we nearby?"
"Yes, my lord. Only a few more minutes until we jump out above Lorrd"
"Good. Prepare my bodyguards and a gunship. Tell them to wear battle armor"
"Yes, my lord"

Tepe left the bridge again, heading straight for the hangars as he was already wearing his battle armor from the battle on Bandomeer. When the ship jumped out of hyperspace, it approached the planet, entering upper atmosphere so it could let out the gunship that lacked the capabilities to fly in space. Aftewrads the humongous ship acended back into space so the gravitational pull wouldn't cause it to crash, causing much devastation on the planet. The gunship was silent as it decended towards the FCC except for the engine sounds. The doors opened when they got near the ground and flew so that the radar wouldn't pick their signal. The gunship sported a green paint scheme and had a large Sith Dominion symbol on both wings as well as on the doors. The ship approached the FCC swiftly and landed with a dust of cloud, letting the passengers off and then staying behind to wait for them. The bodyguards all had their blaster carbines ready in hand and their capes were not fully covering them. Even their armor was much more bulky than normally. Two stayed by the ship while the rest escorted the Lord all the way to the FCC's entrance. Tepe came up to the holotable and looked at the people saluting around him.

"At ease. I can't stay for long. Charna is on her way to the capital. You are also needed there, Kaoin. How is the battle going? Are the civilians allright?" Tepe asked, removing his helmet and placing it under his armpit expectantly.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

"It is better than we could expect, Lord. Out of the two million residents in Lorrd City, only six-thousand have been killed, most of which was collateral from the shelling." Kaoin said to Lord Tepe, his arms crossed.

"Six thousand?" the Sith Lord repeated, raising an eyebrow. The Colonel, the only bodyguard to come with the Lord all the way to the table glanced at Tepe and backed away slightly. The Sith's hand gripped into a fist as he repeated the word quietly to himself.
"Six thousand! Six thousand Lorrdians have been killed by bloody shelling? Why did you even open fire upon civilian targets? Agh... Kaoin, you're going to give me a brain seizure..." the Sith said, gripping the table. He swiftly gathered himself and stepped back. He placed the helmet back on and looked at Kaoin.
"Leave for the capital as soon as you can. We're going to have a briefing with the Grand General and Grand Admiral and some of the other people on various fronts. We'll be waiting for you in the palace" Tepe said and left. His hand was still in a tight fist when he stepped onboard the gunshipe with the bodyguards. The gunship left for the Sith Lord's flagship that once again decended into upper atmosphere to recieve the ship

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

((If I may suggest, Tepe, you still have Strider's close friend, Cylia, under your jurisdiction. If you get the chance message me on MSN sometime, I have some things to suggest and questions to ask. Also, although Emukiel is searching, I must inform you that Emukiel will discover Strider's technique of fighting at great speed may be SIMILAR to his, but the actual finesse, movements, etc. are entirely original and created off his own studies of lightsaber combat.))

Cylia stood quietly behind Tepe during his time on the bridge, donned in a black Dominion tunic and cloak, she had tended to keep to herself the past year and a half. Tepe wanted her for personal information on Strider, she had assumed initially, but lately she didn't know. She kept up in her training with the other Sith, proving far capable as a reliable ally of Tepe's, but felt that her lack of notice was due to her inept ability to provide with any information as to Strider's whereabouts. Her knowledge of basic uses of Strider's old one on one and one versus many melee techniques had proved quite invaluable to the Dominion, however, and individual soldiers on the battlefield suffered less individual casualties due to the knowledge now of Close Quarters Combat. She began to wonder if she had any use yet, or if she would be used later just as a pawn to draw Strider to Tepe.

-----------------

"You know this communication is dangerous, you're putting everything at risk just making it, you know that right?"

"I know. But you know why I'm taking that risk," said a low male voice to a dimly lit holocom.

"Who's been after us?"

"Emukiel. He's been digging around your trail for days. Look, whatever it is you're trying to get, I suggest you do it quickly, before he figures out you're out and about."

"My signature is masked. He wouldn't be able to tell me from a regular everyday citizen. Anyway, thanks for the ID, now I know what I need to be worried about. Catch you later Seraxis."

"Good luck old friend. Watch out. Get back here as soon as possible," said Seraxis. The holocron shut off. Strider turned and moved down the alley quickly. He was after something, what exactly no one was sure, but he would find it before Emukiel caught some warmth to his cold trail.

((I know that it isn't, but Emukiel wants to be sure of it. This might be a very intersting duel when they clash together. Two ancient men with similiar styles of lightsaber combat and great skills in force. They might even level Coruscant if they met there ))

Tepe could feel the doubt in the woman nearby. He took a deep breath and let it out while turning around to see Cylia.
"I have taken you in, Cylia. You are a very respected part of the Sith Dominion and if you so wished, you would be appointed General whenever you so pleased. If you have any trust towards me, use it now when I tell you that this new step in this war is something I didn't even imagine would happen. All I wanted was Sith Space, but now I control almost half of the Outer Rim and parts of Mid Rim and Tingel Arm. If you want a more peaceful and less traveling part in this war, I can bump one governor from his seat and hand the place to you" Tepe said and stepped closer to her.

"You have proven yourself useful. Tell me what you want? Payment? A fleet? A planet? A system? A sector? Information? I can even provide you the trip to the hidden planetof the Sith is you so wish. What would make you believe that you are not a pawn nor a bait?" the Sith Lord asked and looked at the Admiral. The Admiral bowed and left to supervise, leaving the two by themselves. Well, the best he could, taking that there were guards near enought to hear as well as the crew.

------

Emukiel rushed to the landing platform where his ship waited. The captain bowed his greeting as the weequay entered the ship and the ramp was raised. However, the ship didn't leave anywhere yet. It was there like it couldn't lift off, but really Emuiel had told them to wait for a while. Emukiel sat down into a meditative position and started to search the narrow corridors and dark alleyways of the planet. The Jedi would no doubt be on his case in mere minutes, but by then he would be done and the ship either lifting off or the weequay heading back down. He didn't expect much as a result with all the people and taking he didn't know what Strider's force sign was like, but he just had to try before leaving.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Seraxis entered a meeting room in which the other Sith Hunters were waiting. The past year and a half had been strenuous to get them to accept and trust him, as he was very, very far delved into the dark arts of the Force, but much to their surprise, the Hunters found Seraxis a friendly man, who had, much to their amazement, found incredible, practical uses for the Dark Side, which he was glad to teach the Hunters what he knew.

"Where's Strider?" Katherine immediately asked, before any other matters could be settled. She and Strider had grown close over the past year and a half as he became her instructor. He had decided she would be the one he taught what he knew to her. The other Sith Hunters had seen a tremendous performance difference in the past year in Katherine, the training had seriously boosted her confidence and ability.

"He's closing in on his target. I just hope that Emukiel doesn't catch him. Strider can more than handle himself, but if he catches Strider's signature, he'll be able to track him all the way back to us no matter how well he hides his signature," Seraxis informed.

"He needs to hurry then," Katherine concluded.

"Yes, but he said he's almost found what he's looking for. We can only continue to trust him," Seraxis said solemnly.

----------------

Strider walked quickly through the street, weaving his way through the crowd with no difficulty. He blended in perfectly, looked just like a local. He had decided to be dressed as a Hunter, or even in Robes, would have been far too noticable, and took tedious care in looking like the rest. He was almost there, he could feel it. It would not be long now.

Danera suddenly jumped up an left the ship, leaving the Captain only to look at his back. The man wore the tunics similiar to those he wore during the Hundred Year Darkness with a much more larger style of robe ontop of them. It was closed around the Weequay with a series of design tricks, including that it was indeed meant to be much like a monk's robes instead of those worn by the jedi of the Clone Wars. The robe was a very dark brown and had the utility belt hidden under it with a lightsaber of archaic design hanging from the left side. He crosed his hands so they went within the sleeves, but left the hood stay down. When he hopped into the speeder, he took his hands from the sleeves, closed the cockpit and rushed off. He had detected something coming from the lower levels not far from the landing pad. He ad no idea if it was Strider, but it had the echo of a couple of millenias in it, so he trusted his instincts.

As he flew over the crowds at the lower levels, the sign came stronger and stronger. He knew now exactly where it was coming from, but with the crowd, he had no possibility of knowing exactly from what or who the sign came from. He flew over Strider, not noticing him, but the weequay was intelligent enought to go ahead of the sign and land the speeder in a dark alleyway. As he stepped out from the speeder, the sign passed him again. The Weequay grumbled quietly, closed the cockpit and rushed off to tail the sign. He hadn't had this hard of a time locating someone since he was trying to find the Sith Lords behind the Hundred Year Darkness. By the time he was rushing throught the crowds, the sign had grown fainter again. He had to trust his instincts then.

((Actually, this might explain the robes much better than my description))

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Inside the Cantina on the system of Bandomeer sat a man hidden within a black robe, he sitting in the corner with his head leaned back against the wall watching the regulars at the cantina make fools out of themselves over the entertainers. Valin watched as a drunken Sneevel slowly staggered over to them and Valin lowered his hood down to look at the Sneevel who was staring Valin down. Valin cocked his head to the side, only to have the Sneevel reach into its coat and slowly pull out a blaster holding it up

"Yoush looks like a Jedish." Stammered the Sneevel as he staggered a step closer to Valin who was watching the Sneevel, and couldn't help but to let out a slight chuckle into his robe.

"A Jedi huh? Well, your a bit off." Mumbled Valin as Valin rose to his feet infront of the Sneevel hovering a good foot and half over him and folding his arms across his chest.

"I knowz I jedish whens I sees em! I hate Jedish they thinks they are betta then me! Yous thinks yoush better then me!!" Yelled the Sneevel as the Cantina quickly quieted down and the sneevel rose its blaster right into the face of Valin, who only grinned and glanced down to the sneevel.

"Your making a mistake, scumbag." Chuckled Valin as the Sneevel angerly backed up a pace and stomped its foot on the ground.

The Sneevel pulled the trigger of a blaster and a scream echoed through the cantina but, as the blaster neared Valin he whipped out an extrodinary line of red light and held it up at the shot, it deflecting the blast back at the Sneevel but, missing it by a few inches and slamming into a cup of Jawa Juice. The Sneevel turned to spot the cup of Jawa Jucie explode before turning back to Valin, but stopped dead in its tracks feeling a pressure on its neck.

The Sneevel saw Valin clenching his fist halfway, and the farther he did it the more the air was cut off from its windpipe. The Sneevel began to angerly struggle before, pupils in its eyes going big and then it going limp. Valin grinned and released the choke dropping the Sneevel to the floor, before making his way through the silent crowd slowly and exiting the Cantina.

((Welcome to the RP. Find yourself something to do and please don't murder too many Dominion soldiers))

As the people started to leave the cantina, a hovercraft stopped. It was the Bandomeer security, a rather autonomous police force on the planet. One of the officers mounted the small turret while the driver kept the engine running while the two other officers climbed out, took their rifles ready in their hands with the barrel pointing down and went in to see what happened. Taking the planet had just been succesfully defended from the Galactic Alliance, the Police and Dominion soldiers were still in high alert with all officers patrolling the streets. As the officers entered the cantina, two hoverbikes stopped next to it. The men riding them were wearing the Dominion symbol with proud on their capes. The officers knew exactly who they were. They were a couple of them Dark Jedi that were in charge of all problems where those strong with the force were involved. These two had obviously sensed the Jedi's presence and now came to look around. The driver said that most of the customers had already left the cantina but were still nearby. The dark jedi left off after the crowd, calling out for all cantina customers to return to the cantina or face Dominion law instead of Bandomeerian, which would mean much more tedious and harsh treatment towards them.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Valin began to wander down the streets seemingly unnoticed to the people around him, for they were all busy with their own thing. Valin heard the sounds of hoverbikes behind him and slowly turned around to spot two dominion soldiers hovering behind him. Valin cocked his head at them before swiping his cloak a little to the left to hide his lightsaber.

"Problem?" Asked Valin calmy folding his arms over his chest as the Dominion Members step off the hoverbikes and go on either side of Valin sorrounding him from two sides keeping eyes locked on him, and there hands on their waists where their lightsabers lay.

"Their was... a problem within the cantina. Know anything about that?" Asked one of the Dominion Soldiers as he pulled his lightsaber off his belt loop and ignited it into a ray of red light.

"Nothing much. Just arrived here, thought I would look around the streets. Nice Shops you got here by the way." Valin mumbled before eyeing the red lightsaber being held inches from his chest and grinned slightly, at the threat the Dark Jedi was attempting to make.

"The person in the cantina was a force user. I can feel the same presense within you. Care to explain that?" Asked the Dominion Member, as he nodded his head to the Dominion Member on the opposite side of Valin and he too ignited his lightsaber and a grin spread across Valin's face.

"Well, even if I did have an excuse... You wouldn't let me get up and leave anyway. So lets cut the formalities shall we?" Said Valin as the Dominion Soldiers looked at him oddly and confused, before understanding moments later and the one who had been silent lifted his lightsaber up to strike Valin down.

Valin ducked under the slash from the lightsaber and held an open palm out Force Pushing the Dominion Soldier back into one of the buildings, he literally crashing through the wall with speed and rumble falling onto his torso. Valin turned to spot the other solider, running at him with his lightsaber lifted high above his head carelessly. Valin whipped his lightsaber out and caught the strike with it, before fighting back with a slash to left and then to the right teasing the soldier into thinking he might have a chance of defeating Valin.

The Soldier began to frantically swing his lightsaber missing Valin completely 50% of the time. Valin was forced to chuckle at this before feeling a hot pain on his shoulder and looked over to spot a burnt slash on his shoulder. Valin looked at the Solider who was looking at Valin with a sick twisted grin. Valin lifted his hand up, and the Solider ran at Valin looking to strike him first, but failed. Valin released an extrodionary show of lightning from his finger tips and the lightning began to surge through the Soldiers body before blowing him backwards into the wall behind him. Valin deignited his lightsaber and grinned, before walking over to the man he had just attacked and heard his faint breathing.

"Next time, I won't be so pleasant." Mumbled Valin before driving the tip of boot into the rib of the Dominion Dark Jedi as he rolled over onto his stomache.

Valin heard the faint sounds of hoverbikes in the distance and quickly turned his head around the street seeing the eyes of thousands looking at him. Valin whipped his hood up over his head, before jumping over the crowd of people into an alley and began to sprint down the alley away from the commosion.

"Lord Tepe! Message from Bandomeer. They say they have a runaway Jedi. Most probably a Coruscant Jedi as he attacked the Dark Jedi that had arrived to take him into custody, sir" A young officer called out. Tepe turned to see him, than back at Cylia.
"It seems you have yourself a job, Cylia. Take one of the Valcyns and a couple of my guards. You'll need them. Bring the jedi to me." he said and walked to the Admiral. As Cylia was leaving, Tepe added one last word:
"...alive"

As the woman made her way to the hangars, Phasma jumped out of Hyperspace to let the shuttle off before continuing it's way towards Thule and the Governor's palace that had been converted into Tepe's palace for the time being. The Colonel stepped up towards Tepe and the Admiral, turning to the Lord.
"Are you sure of sending her?"
"I trust her enought. However, do send your men the following orders. They are to shoot Cylia if she attempts to kill, help and/or interrogate the jedi for he own needs. They are also to bring her down if she attempts treason in any way"

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

((Sorry guys. This will be my last post till about 8:00 tonight. I'm heading to my girlfriends till then. So, I'll continue my part of the story then. Feel free to continue without me. I'll read up when I get back ))

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Valin walked for what seemed to be hours, but in reality only turned out to be a couple of minutes and he approached the hangar bay controlled by the Dominion however most that mattered didn't know about the going ons in the streets and cantina yet. Valin approached the YT-1300 with a purple and white astro droid quickly springing to life and making noises such as "Bee doop Dwoooo"

"R7, bring up holorecording 2224" Mumbled Valin as he pulled a small board with a screen out of the cockpit and looked it over before plugging it into a small compartment in the pit and staring at the screen as a hologram sprung to life out of it, a man with a black scruffy beard and black hair cascading halfway down his back.

"My Apprentice, If you are seeing this Holocron I am long passed death. I've taught you everything I know about the force, and I knew if I weren't to die a second later you would have slain me down with little effort. That is why I made this Holocron. I suggest you stay out of the war and set your sights... higher. Go to Korriban to the tomb of Marko Rangnos and the mysteries will be revealed"

The Holocron ended and Valin tossed the board back into the cockpit as the glass sheilding covered it again. Valin leaned against the ship for a moment, and let a sigh escape his lips. Valin cocked his head upwards to spot many ships pass by in the sky and looked around hearing the talk of the Cantina and Street battles with the Dominion and the Sneevel. Valin grinned and wished to still head to Korriban but, needed one more thing before he could leave.

Valin pushed off the his ship he was leaning against and began to wander back into the streets, passing many Dominion Soliders and Dark Jedi but they not noticing him much. They were all distracted with something like he was with his mission to Korriban. But, his mission he had created in the process was... revenge on Shrouded Future.

((There is nothing on the planet controlled by the Galactic Alliance. Also, making a Holocron is tedious and a long-forgotten skill at that too. Your master would have probably made a holorecording. The message given by the master also indicates that, taking that the Gatekeepers of the Holocrons wouldn't speak like the speech was recorded))

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

It did not take long for Cylia to arrive at the planet with the men. Her senses went immediately into high alert. She scanned the Force signatures of everyone, sensing the signatures of the Dominion members, searching for the signature of the elusive Jedi. It did not take long to find him. He stood out well against the general population and the signatures of the Dominion's Dark Jedi. She began to close in, taking various side alleys and shortcuts, though making sure all of the men sent with her kept up. Finally, she closed in on him. To him, the streets had suddenly gotten empty and he found himself surrounded by the men, and Cylia, who ignited her lightsaber.

"Lord Tepe of the Sith Dominion has decreed you are to come quietly with us for an audience with the Lord. You can either do this the easy way or the hard way, if you make it easier on yourself it would be far more worth your while," Cylia said, eyeing the man in case he would try anything.

--------------

Strider could sense Emukiel's signature very easily amongst the crowds of the people. He tried more to mask his identity, blending even better with the large crowds. He had to get what he was after. He took a turn down a walkway that led further down, towards the lower levels of the city, obviously going to be slummish and filled with the less pleasant life of the city. He hoped to find what he was looking for before Emukiel found him, if not, he might not have another chance.

Valin glanced around him to the men sorrounding him before letting a grin spread across his face and lowered his hood taking a step toward Cylia and reached into his cloak keeping his hand on his lightsaber in case things may get hasty with the Dominion Dark Jedi.

"Far worth my while ey? Well, I would figure that would be a invite into the Dominion which I'm not to intrested about." Valin said, before pulling his lightsaber off of his belt loop and igniting it into a show of red light.

"Disagreeing with you, will probably just be a big pain. But, agreeing with you would mean I would have venture a rather far way. Both ways have their pros and cons." Valin glanced around to the soldiers then staring back at Cylia before gently bumping his saber into hers grinning at her reaction.

Valin backflipped backwards and landed behind the soldier them immedietley turning toward him ready to shoot, but Valin instead tossed his lightsaber to the floor letting it deignite as a sign that he was no threat. Valin bended down and picked up his saber before turning to face Cylia.

"Lets get going then... shall we?" Valin mumbled before grinning and turning his back awaiting Cylia to lead him to this Lord Tepe.

Cylia smiled. "Glad you see it our way. Guards, take him to the ship," she said briefly, and led the way back to the ship. They boarded, and the ship left immediately to return to Lord Tepe. Cylia sat quietly across from the man, personally keeping her eye on him to ensure nothing happened.

-----------

Strider wove his way into an apartment complex in the slums, the rooms were small, he made his way to the back and turned down a corner to a dead end. He cursed himself quietly. He knew he'd have to draw on the Force to do this next action, and it would immediately alert Emukiel to his presence. He'd have to grab what he was looking for and go. Strider lifted his hand and concentrated. Blue symbols appeared on the wall momentarily, then a door slid open. Strider quickly entered, finding the room empty save for a few items - A long, thin bladed sword in a sheath, which he quickly grabbed. The other item, an old data pad. He quickly grabbed that and tucked it inside his clothing. The last thing was a locked black box. He gazed at it for a moment, before grabbing it and tucking it into the tattered duster he was wearing, then left the room, waving his hand behind him to close it as he left, sword in hand, pockets filled with the other two items.

Folded his arms across his chest and leaned his head back against the metal wall of the ship behind him and grinned as he was being eyed by Cylia. Valin rose to his feet and began to pace around the ship quietley before abruptly turning to Cylia and cocking his head to the side.

"What does Lord Tepe want with me? I don't give a **** about the Dominion?" Asked Valin as he made his way over to Cylia and cocked his head to the side with a grin.

Valin took a seat on the bench inwhich he was sitting again and leaned his head against the wall once again closing his eyes, feeling the force around him and listening for Cylia's explanation.

As Strider exited the house, he found himself staring at an old, wrinkled Weequay face. Emukiel smiled as he looked at Striderand took a step back.
"I know you. I was there when you were brought back from Kyron. Ha! Those days I was the Grand Master, believe it or not. Just about a month after you arrived and the council argued over what had happened, I left the order and became one of the Lost Twenty. Hm... It seems like yesterday" he mused and crossed his arms within their sleeves. The ancient jedi watched Strider and prodded his mind with the Force. He was very intrigued of this man.
"I have heard stories of your lightsaber skills, boy. It is time we tested those skills. Now go easy on me. I'm a bit rusty after all these millenias of resting" Emukiel said before suddenly gasping.
"By the Force! I haven't introduced myself. Wherever are my manners? I am Emukiel Al-Saefar former Grand Master of the Old Jedi Order. Althought, you probably already knew that by now." he said and bowed before opening his robes and taking out a lone lightsaber.
"Now, I didn't bring my proper sword, so if you don't have your lightsaber around, I can lend you one" he offered with a grin, taking the staring position of his own style of Vaapad, a style he hadn't used to it's proper extent since the Republic came a peaceful place to live in.

------

Phasma jumped out of hyperspace near Thule and closed in on the planet, staying to orbit it when close enought. A Valcyn-class Shuttle was released with Tepe and his guards inside. The shuttle entered the atmosphere of the planet and finally landed on Palace ground. Soldiers were marching by the main entrance and towards the large gates leading out to the city. The company was in charge of Palace security and stopped by the gate for a change of guards. The old guards formed next to them, the two captains saluted each others and then switched the refreshed guards for the old ones. The whole thing was full of small traditions which Tepe had by now stopped to notice. He and the guards walked into the Palace and down the decorated halls. Guards would every now and then depart when they went past their guard posts. By the time Tepe reached the largest hall with a throne behind a large desk, the only one with him was the Colonel. The Sith Lord sat down and looked at the seat next to him where the Colonel sat down on. Tepe sighed and slumped down on the throne. This whole ordeal was more than tiresome to him, but for the morale he needed to keep a strong attitude when not in private.
"Colonel, I need some alone time. Inform me when we can start the meeting" he said and dismissed the Colonel. As the doors closed and were locked, the Sith Lord sat down on the seat in a meditative position and started to meditate.
'Why did I ever start this war?' he thought and straightened his back, falling into a refreshing meditation session. He had needed to clear his thoughts for many weeks now and getting that huge blockage out of his brain might help him in thinking about a finalizing strike. How could he stop the fighting when the Galactic Alliance would not listen to him. It would mean he needed someone in the senate to start spreading th thought of ending the war for good.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

The pilot contacted the Dominion and instructed them to inform Tepe that the Jedi had already been caught.

Cylia had been sitting up perfectly straight the whole time, her eyes following him as he moved. She said calmly, with little to no emotion in her voice, "You will find out in time. I will say no more than that."

--------------

Strider gritted his teeth. He knew he would have been caught up to. Strider shrugged off his robe, which still had two of the three items in it, and tossed it aside, then tossed the sword in its sheath on top of it.

"I have my own," he said briefly. He took his lightsaber blade off his belt and ignited the blade, holding it to his side for the moment. His blue eyes contrasted greatly behind his messy black hair and dark clothing, staring penetratingly back at Emukiel.

"Looking for me lately? You might as well ask any questions you have, because you'll only tire yourself trying to break into my mind, I suggest you save that energy for more productive purposes," Strider warned.

The dark blue blade blurred around Strider for a quick moment before he brought it to a ready position in his own original stance, its originality lending no hint to its advantages or disadvantages.

"Let's go, you first, because as they say," he paused, smirking at Emukiel, taunting him, "Age before beauty."

Valin scowled at the Dark Jedi for a moment, before beginning to wander around the ship and turned back to the bench holding his hand out as his lightsaber hilt came to him and he caught it igniting it into red energy and staring a Cylia his eyes looking at hers with a cold glare.

"If you shall not tell me... then I suppose their is no reason to stay." Said Valin as a grin spread across his lips.

Valin turned around and drove the lightsaber into the door slicing through it and beginning to go up and over it in a doorshape. Once Valin made a doorshape he could squeeze through, he kicked it down to enter into the ships cockpit. Valin grinned as the pilot turned around and he let go of his lightsaber force pushed it forward and it driving directly through the pilot's head, and the ship began to spin out of control with no pilot. Valin forced the lightsaber to return to his hand and turned back to the door awaiting Cylia holding his lightsaber to his side.

"My Lord Tepe," a messenger said, knocking lightly on Tepe's door. "The Lady Charna's flagship has just dropped out of hyperspace and entered orbit of the planet. She has radioed her arrival and asked us to inform you that she would be landing in ten minutes."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"You can never have enough training," Reibe Vailar said patiently, easily batting away a frustrated stroke of Jahara's lightsaber. "And your current frustration proves it further. Jahara, if you believe you have reached your maximum potential, you will never improve."

"What if I have?" Jahara demanded, exasperated. "What if I'm just not meant to be your match at saber combat?"

"Then you are meant for surpassing me in another area," Reibe answered. She shut off her saber and Jahara followed suit.

"And what is that?" she wondered. Reibe smiled faintly.

"Use of the Force," she replied. "I wonder that I had not seen it sooner." She closed her eyes, relaxing ever so slightly as if she were being saturated in the Force. Her smile deepened. "Oh, my dear Jahara, I do wonder at myself now... the Force is a tornado around you... a mighty whirlwind of great power, eager to be tapped and wielded for the greater good."

"Think quickly! Act quicker!" she barked, summoning all her strength in the Force to hurl a powerful push at Jahara. With a quick, dismissive gesture, Jahara overturned the oncoming shove, directing it into the nearest wall. Their surroundings shook violently, knocking Reibe to the ground, but Jahara kept her footing. Reibe stood slowly.

"How blind I have been," she whispered, awestruck by what she had just witnessed. She approached Jahara and reached up to put her hands on the younger woman's head. Jahara gasped as an image flashed through her mind.

"And that's what it is..." she stammered. "... what you see, when you look at me?"

Cylia leapt up, blade ignited and immediately began lightsaber combat with Valin, not waiting for him to get ready. She also threw her hand out forward and using the Force, activated the autopilot mechanism to bring the ship back to stability. Their blades clashed several times, her finesse with the blade was quite impeccable, using a style that the young Jedi was not familiar with. In a sweeping move, she locked blades with him, hooked her foot on his leg and lifted it off the ground, then moved her arm behind his neck and quickly drove him to the floor. She placed one foot on his back and the blade to his neck. The other soldiers onboard the shuttle scrambled out of the quarters and pointed their blasters at the Jedi. One confiscated his now deactivated lightsaber, and another brushed past Cylia to take control of the shuttle once more, moving the dead pilot's body away.

"You chose the hard way, I see," she said at last, and nodded at one of the guards. They secured his hands in Force-repellant cuffs, standard use for kidnapping Force Sensitives, hauled him to his feet, and pushed him into a room of confinement.

Cylia brushed her hair out of her face and stepped into the cockpit. "Hopefully we'll have no more interruptions..." she muttered.

----------

Seraxis trained with Katherine, her blade spinning expertly around his, the young man having difficult keeping up with the far more experienced female duelist.

"I can definitely tell you learned from Strider," he commented, blocking another one of her strikes barely.

"Training under him is an experience not easily forgotten," Katherine commented back, making another series of swift blows that almost, to Seraxis, seemed to have come from every possible front angle.

"Yes, he's very good, but I think I finally found a flaw in your adaptation of his technique," he declared with a grin.

"Really? I'd like you to prove it," Katherine said tauntingly.

He did, he found a crucial flaw in her movements. He was easily able to bat her blade aside during one of her swings, stepped to the side while Katherine spun to counter, and moved his blade forward, ending it up at her neck.

"Gotcha," he said confidently.

Katherine raised her eyebrow at him suggestively, then lowered her eyes down and smirked. Seraxis frowned for a moment, feeling a strange heat below him. He looked down and found her blade just between his legs, just as easily ready to cut him in half as he was to cut off her head.

"Okay..it's a draw," he said conclusively. He knew she was still a far better lightsaber combatant than he, but he'd also taught her very many things about Force usage that she'd never have imagined possible.

"You need more practice," she said with a laugh, and Seraxis nodded, retreating to the other side of the room and getting ready again.

Grinned slightly and quietly snug in position watch Cylia before attempting to break the cuffs and when noticing he couldn't once again began to wander the ship with the cuffs attached being watched at all times by the soldiers. Valin took a seat next to Cylia and looked out the cockpit window watching the Stars Pass.

"Your lucky that wasn't you Cylia. But, I wanted to give you a chance to prove your worth. You did that well, I must say" Valin grinned as he leaned back in a sitting position attempting to get comfortable in his position.

"You know I could have easily knocked you out when you were caught off guard. I chose not to. Remember that Cylia." Mumbled Valin before closing his eyes and entering a stage of deep meditation.

"Give it up Yevel!" A voice yelled through the plains of Dantooine as a Rodian shoots up from over a hill sprinting for an estate in the nearby plains as the sounds of a jetpack glare behind him.

A man dressed in light green battle armor, he helmet being a cut smooth at the top and sliding down the edges in zig-zag formation all the way to his light green battle armor which lay smoothly on his chest a snug fit. The Man began toward Yevel approaching either side of him before, beginning to blast him with his rifle but the Rodian proved resistant.

"Get out of here ya damn bounty hunter!" Yelled Yevel before turning around and tossing a Frag Gernade at the man, but the man lifted his hand up and brought it down deflecting the gernade back at Yevel and blowing up the sorrounding feild around Yevel and his legs along with it.

Yevel gripped onto the dirt and began to slowly pull his way toward the estate still looking to get to safety but, the man stopped infront of Yevel's path and Yevel slowly looked up and the Bounty Hunter lowered his blaster down to Yevel's forehead.

"Yevel... Wanted..." The Bounty Hunter pulled the trigger and splattered Yevel's brains behind onto the plains of Dantooine as a grin spread across his face.

"Dead." The Bounty Hunter grinned and turned around before slowly walking back, toward the port.

The Bounty Hunter stopped at the hill in which he chased Yevel and looked back to Yevel's body that was laying lifeless on the ground and rose his helmet off revealing himself to be a Abyssin, although he was shy about it and liked people to think he was human for he spoke perfect Galatic Basic.

"Complementries of Eryn Vazyl." Mumbled Eryn before turning his back and beginning back toward Dantoonie port.

((Well, the object really is to get you to Tepe :P On any normal occasion, I would have, but I wasn't expecting you to have made the move you did made :P))

Cylia smirked. "You underestimate me. I was watching your movements the entire time. I could have easily stopped you while you cut the door open. I chose not to. Either way, we are both at an impasse here, so I suggest the best course of action would be to stifle this argument and you can wait until your audience with Tepe to find out your fate. Lucky for you, he's quite benevolent at times, you may get to walk away unharmed and leave freely if he makes you an offer that you refuse," she said, turning away at last.

"And who are you to think, I want to see Lord Tepe? I hope he won't let me leave freely. He should be intresting. Unlike people like you who hide behind their soldiers." Mumbled Valin as he opened his eyes breaking his meditation and kneeling forward before flexing his muscles and attempting to break the cuffs again.

"Where is my lightsaber?" Asked Valin as he quickly looked around before spotting the soldier who confiscated his lightsaber and rose to his feet looking at him with a cold glare and shaking his head.

Valin let a loud sigh escape his lips before falling backwards onto the seat angerly and looking up to Cylia being annoyed how he was being held here against his will. He began to wander to the back of the ship again where many soldiers stood and he stood in the middle of the room glancing around at the soldiers grinning.

"Yevel has met... a most unfortanate fate." Mumbled Eryn as he approached the Hutt sitting in the corner who glanced to Eryn for a moment, before erupting into a laugh and holding its stomache with its stubby arms.

The Hutt nodded to its associate droid as the droid tossed a brown sack Eryn's way and he caught it before shifting it into his pocket and nodding his head patting his blaster and turning walking out of the Estate on the opposite side and coming out to a B-Wing landed in the middle of a field.

"Home sweet home." Mumbled Eryn before climbing into his ship and taking his helmet off to have the tinted glass cover the cockpit and him listening to his recordings for awhile for his next bounty.

"I told you when I stopped you. You could come the easy way or the hard way. Coming at all wasn't your choice. As for hiding behind my soldiers, naturally I wouldn't, but lucky for you, Tepe wants you alive," Cylia shot back, before turning away once more to ignore him.

Valin looked around the room of soldiers before coming up to one and cocking his head to the side only to knee him in the stomache forcing him to drop his blaster, Valin turning around catching the blaster in his cuffed hands and blasting the coil holding the cuffs together apart. Valin was still not able to use the force for the cuffs were still working, but was able to move his hands.

"Here you go." Valin said dropping the Blaster in the soldiers hands he had kicked before grinning and slipping his lightsaber through his hoop being able to pilfer it off of the soldier without him noticing.

Valin went back to the seat and sat down this time folding his arms and leaning his head back watching as they approached the port of the planet and a grin spread across his face.

One of the Dominion Guards came in to see the end of the ruckus. Rarely the Guards spoke, but this was one of those times.
"Right. I've had enought of you" he said and took out his rifle. The last thing the jedi saw before blacking out would be the stock of the rifle hitting him several times, possibly even causing a concussion. The Guard searched the Jedi, took the lightsaber and any other weaponry he might use and then dragged him to one of the sleeping quarters with the other Guard. They threw him on the bare floor, left and locked the door behind themselves. The other Guard looked at the lightsaber, frowned and took an attention next to the door. They had just relieved Cylia from her duties as the guard of the Jedi.

When they finally landed, they opened the door again and smashed the Jedi again with the stocks before dragging him out and off the ship. They had landed just next to the Palace. A group of four guards came in at this point, two dragging the jedi while two staying way behind, ready to shoot him if necessary. They dragged him throught the Palace and straight into a heavily guarded waiting room.

The Dominion Guards looked at Cylia as the Jedi was dragged away.
"We'll report everything to Lord Tepe if you don't wish to come inside and do it personally. Here's the Jedi's lightsaber" the other Guard said and gave her the lightsaber they had taken from Valin.

------

Emukiel flashed a smile to Strider, taking his robes off and dropping them on the cold ground. He stepped forwards, placing his lightsaber against his and pushing slightly. He tested the man's nerves, grip and strenght. After a moment of silence, the man gave a warm laughter and attacked. His form of lightsaber handling was very unique in it's own, having defeated several Sith before. But this was no Sith he was fighting. The tail grew long on the lightsaber as he speeded up his moves, lashing at Strider seemingly carelessly. His attacks were easy to block if you kept with him, but he hand't shown his true colours yet. He backflipped away from Strider, looking at him with a smile.

"A little warmup so we can begin" he said and rushed into the fight this time seriously- The tail grew once again long as he entered the duel and continued to harrass the Hunter with constant attacks and attempts to breach throught his defence.

------

Lord Tepe rose up and took a breath in. The war came to him again. He sat on his throne and called in the Colonel as well as a messenger.
"Tell Lady Charna I will be waiting for her"
"Yes, my lord. Oh, and there is a Jedi prisoner waiting for you"
"Tell the guards to wait. I must speak with my apprentices first. Is Kaoin even near to arriving?"
"No idea, my lord. There has been no message from Lorrd or Kaoin"
"Fine... Send him a message to hurry up with it"
The messenger left an Tepe sighed. He needed some motivation to continue this war. Emukiel was trying to catch Strider, most of his fleets were in bad condition yet needed to defend the systems they were assigned to, his apprentices were becoming more and more like Generals and Cylia was still a trouble spot for him. What should he do with her?

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Evyn's eye shot open to a loud beeping noise and he slammed his fist on a large button on the board of controls and a screen popped up with a man standing there shrouded in a dark hood. Evyn cocked his head for a minute, before reading the little information it gave.

Name: Tepe
Planet: Unknown
Wanted: Dead

Eryn sighed and rolled his eyes at the little information thinking it wasn't worth his time before reading the credits offer. 20,000,000 Credits. Eryn's jaw dropped for a minute, before a wide spread grin spread over his face and he grabbed onto his helmet next to him and slipped it on before switching all power to thrusters and leaving the planet of Dantooine in search of this "Tepe"

"Inform my master that there was an attempted terrorist attack on my flagship. It is currently being searched thoroughly by my bodyguards, and should be underway within the next 10 minutes." Kaoin pressed a button and the holo shut off.

Kaoin slammed his fist into a bulkhead of the FCC, creating a dent. "Dammit all! Captain, get me a gunship, and prepare the Bloodied Spirit for immediate hyperspace jump to Thule." said Kaoin, his eyes burning with rage. He was getting sick and tired of Darth Tepe ordering him around like his little dog. He wanted to end it soon, but now, unfortunately, was not the time.

((Hey guys, offtopic and out of character, what do you guys think of my new sig? Anyway, keep up the rp guys, this is the most alive its been in forever!))

Cylia nodded and took the Jedi's lightsaber. "I'll report it myself, thank you." She said, and quietly waited with the guards until Tepe admitted their entrance.

---------

Strider was not even in the least bit alarmed at Emukiel's unique fighting style. However, though Emukiel was very experienced, the Sith Hunter was a duelist quite unlike anything Emukiel had ever seen. His lightsaber pulled no fancy tricks, all of his moves were simply very swift, his body would twist in turn in odd ways that seemed almost skeletally impossible without the right balance to dodge swings or give him a better opening to block or parry. When he attacked, his swings were strong and fast, most of the time all Emukiel truly saw was the dark blur of Vincent's body and the blue blur of Vincent's blade.

Vincent finally spun away and brought his blade to an offensive appearing stance, smirking at Emukiel. "Grandmaster you are far too old to fight such a young opponent," he taunted. "You should save your strength, you need it to walk!" With that, in a quick dash he moved forward, his blue blade went to the offensive, striking at Emukiel quickly in a flashing blue blur, putting Emukiel on the defensive to give him a taste of the Sith Hunter's powerful technique.

"I ask you once nicely... give me my saber back" Mumbled Valin before rising up and starting toward Cylia folding his arms behind his back and watching her.

Valin stood in the middle of the ship breathing heavily fiddling with the cuffs for a moment before eventually being able to deactivate them and the energy around them going pitch black. Valin let a grin spread across his face and held his hand out wanting Cylia to hand his lightsaber back to him.

One of the guards in the room came from behind and cracked the Jedi's head again with the stock of his rifle
"You ain't getting nothing back before Lord Tepe orders so" he said and noted for a couple of other guards come around. They dragged the man up, put a new set of cuffs on him and pushed him back down.
"And don't even try to stand up. I'll enjoy shooting you in the back any time"

------

Emukiel gave another lighted laught as he blocked the attacks quite swiftly.
"Youth has nothing to do with lightsaber combat. All you need is the force" he said before stepping back and gripping Strider's blade with his hand, holding onto it There was no burning on his hand, yet the hand was wrapped around the lightsaber. Emukiel's own lightsaber was pointing down in a Makashi starting position.
"You see, young Strider. Experience is good, but knowledge is better. Knowledge of the Force is even better" the Weequay said before letting the lightsaber go and stepping further back, his lightsaber still ready by his side.

"I have gotten what I wanted from you physically. Now I want you to tell me something. Why have you tangled yourself in ths war? You are Sith Hunters, but is it truly worth it?" he asked and stared Strider while getting mentally ready to defend himself against practically anything the Hunter could attack with

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Strider's blade deignited. He expected no further strikes from Emukiel, and even if he had, the one thing Emukiel didn't know was his mastery of close quarters combat as well as quite innovative uses of the Force.

"I assume you mean why myself personally. I have many reasons. As for its worth, so long as I'm still breathing, the cause is still worth something to me," Strider replied vaguely. He knew this was not the answer Emukiel would want, but Strider was trying to buy time for him to create his escape from this confrontation.

Emukiel shook his head, deactivating his lightsaber and looking to the busy street. It would only be a matter of time when the Jedi would barge in. He didn't want to be around for that more than Strider did, so he walked clamly to his robes and drew them on in one single motion.
"The Galactic Alliance has been fighting since it was the Rebel Alliance. Nothing else has changed than that they have allied their warmongering with the Empire's. The Sith Dominion is just like any nation. The only thing wrong with the picture is that the people are happy while the leaders are Sith. Are you willing to subject the people under Dominion rule to the chaos that the Galactic Alliance has proven itself to be. Even Skywalker has allied his jedi with the Dominion. Think about it... You can find me on Ziost if you wish to speak or duel with me again. And remember I was not sent..." he said before drawing his hood on and leaving for the street. Befoe he could reach it, however, he turned around and looked at him with a smile.
"It was nice to see you again, young Flamehart"

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.
In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
- Carl Sagan

Only a few moments later, Charna entered Tepe's throne room and knelt to bow before him. "My Lord, forgive me if I speak out of turn," she said gently, "but you are weary of the war. The fleets are falling into disrepair from the Republic's constant battering. Kaoin is growing increasingly more disrespectful and rebellious... and we agree it may not be long before he decides it's time to overthrow you."

As Tepe looked ready to speak, Charna held up a hand to stop him. "Please let me finish." She closed her eyes and reached out with the Force. "You regret having Kaoin and myself as deeply involved in fighting the war as we are. And Cylia is a thorn in your side, worming her way deeper."

She shook her head, falling silent for a moment. When she opened her eyes, she offered a faint smile to Tepe. "But know this, my Lord. Troubles will arise, but they will also depart. Whether they depart through death or through other means, they still depart."

Her smile faded as she looked up at him earnestly. "This galaxy is in a tremendous volume of unrest. But ripples are beginning, ripples which will restore the peace. I can feel it."

Bowing again, she finished, "However, it was not I who called to meet with you. You desired to see me and I have come."

Dropping to one knee, she said softly, "What do you desire of me, Master?"

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"You wield the Force as an extension of yourself," Reibe observed thoughtfully, angling her head as she stared at Jahara. "And yet the moment you take up a lightsaber, your entire attitude changes. You use it gracefully, but... in such a... clumsy way."

"Graceful in a clumsy way..." Jahara frowned. "Reibe, you're not making sense again."

Reibe chuckled. "You treat the lightsaber as if it is a tool in your hand, not an extension of your arm. That is why you never defeat me. My lightsaber becomes merely another part of my body."

"I said I wanted you to train me in wielding the Force," Jahara said with a slight frown, hands on her hips. Reibe mimicked the pose.

"I can't," she replied bluntly. "By instinct you wield the Force more intimately than I'll ever be able to. For that, you must either train yourself... or find another master."

Jahara nodded and retrieved her lightsaber from where it had clattered to the floor nearly half an hour ago. Since then, Reibe had been observing Jahara's talents with manipulating objects in the room with the Force.